The door had been locked and as I later noticed barred from the other side due to the battle there, but I still crashed through it. The solidly constructed door gave way immediately, torn from its hinges and pulling up the squealing iron bars. As soon as they were clear of their places I threw the door aside and paused only momentarily to take in the scene.
Most unexpectedly, I quickly registered Blaze's presence, though she held one hand to her side as if injured. On the opposite side of the room to her was the Garo Master, easily twice the size of the Garo Robe I'd seen before. His garb was not rough brown burlap but a fine violet with red and gold trim, and he had a shining silver mask in place of the simple hood. He wielded two long blades that were set aflame, and he was trying without much success to slash at a tiny light that was another fairy.
"Accursed fairy!" he snarled. "Hold still while I deal with you!"
"You wish, you big bully!" the fairy replied in the familiar piping tones of my long missed companion, Navi. She was easily evading the blades, and I could feel the faint pulses of her mind actively at work aiding that. The Garo Master wasn't having much luck fighting her.
I put aside my momentary elation at being re-united with her and concentrated on the task at hand. Navi clearly held the attention of the Garo master, and neither appeared to have noticed me yet. Navi always was more perceptive than I realized, and so she may have noticed but been too busy to remark – and even then, if she did notice me, she likely wouldn't recognise me.
This meant while I had the chance, seeing to Blaze was the first order of business. I quickly darted to where she was, making sure to hold my spiked hands up to show I didn't intend to fight her.
"I don't have time to explain," I told her quickly, getting out the Blue Potion I'd bought for the Well but not needed. "Drink this – it'll help with your wounds and give you a good boost of energy besides – then leave the rest to me. I'll explain afterwards."
Before she had time to answer me I was already returning to the rather one-sided fight between Navi and the Garo Master.
"Is that the best you've got?" Navi demanded, and I felt a hard shove from her – and a momentary pride. I'd taught her how to use her mind like I did mine, and she'd turned out to be exceptional at it. The push she gave was powerful enough to shove the Garo Master back – and right into me.
"Hey, you," I growled at him. "Pick on someone your own size," I told him, then punched him squarely in the face, making him stumble back again in surprise, his silver mask dented. I followed, raining further blows on him and leaving great rents and gashes in his otherwise fine robe, paying attention to the floor as his oddly green blood started to leave a trail. Further and further back I drove him, unaware of what Navi or Blaze were doing, until I cornered him.
Then he vanished.
"Behind you!" Navi cried the alarm. I turned quickly and even quicker dropped to the ground as the two blades scythed harmlessly past each other above. I reached for Ghirahim, incomplete as he was, and started for the Garo Master again as I got back up.
"The blade!" the Garo Master exclaimed in surprise, and attacked swiftly and harshly, leaving me no quarter. I had to concentrate fully on defending, if I made a mistake that was likely it. Soon enough he appeared to start to let up – but that was a deception, as I struck for an opening he quickly seized the Demon blade from me and leapt up.
"Give that back, you thief!" I snarled after him, swinging both arms to send both of Mikau's fins soaring up after him. The Garo Master easily dodged them both as they reached up and arced back, pausing on the ledge of the circular opening in the ceiling.
"I do not take orders from you," he told me in a low hiss. "I answer only to my Master the Demon Majora, and the Demon wishes to possess this blade for himself. Fare poorly, Hero," he said, then vanished again.
I restrained myself from the urge to shout a number of particularly unpleasant remarks about him and calmed myself with considerable effort. By the time I was done, I was faced with Blaze and Navi hovering almost protectively between me and her.
"Relax, Navi," I said. "I'm not here to fight you."
"You know him?" Blaze asked her.
"No," Navi said thoughtfully, and I felt the probing touch of her mind. "Wait a moment. There's two presences here, and I don't mean his fairy."
"Want me to tell you, or do you want to figure it out for yourself?" I asked.
"Do we really have time for this?" Tael asked plaintively.
"Oh hush," Navi told him, and again I felt her mind touch mine. "It's strange. They're both... very similar. But one of them is..." she trailed off and I caught her surprise before she drew her mind back. "Silver? Is that..."
"Hey Navi. Been a while, hasn't it?" I grinned. "I didn't think you'd recognise me."
"But how did you – I mean you're-"
"A Zora, I know. The lead guitarist of the Zora band the Indigo-go's, to be exact, something that Tael here," I nodded to him, "Goes all fanboy about."
"I do not!" he spluttered.
"Oh, really? Who was it who couldn't stop talking about it on the way back up from the beach?" I teased. "I'm also the Goron Hero Darmani at times, a Deku Scrub, the familiar Hylian boy you remember and also..." I paused, and took off the Zora mask. The Golden Gauntlets were loose on my hands now, but I ignored that. "The Hero of Time, Silver."
Blaze started back at the sight of me changing form, going for her slim rapier, but Navi practically threw herself at me. If she'd had arms she'd have hugged me, but she didn't need to. This close to her I felt her own mind and how much it had grown since I'd last seen her.
"You're keeping in practice I see," I noted.
"Why don't you look for yourself, and see just how far I've come?"
"I would, but I'm having a bit of trouble at the moment. Something like when we visited the Shadow Temple."
"Yeah, he went up against the local dead King and Majora used him to make Ikana attack his mind," Tael supplied. "The overgrown hedgehog's been terrible without his mind."
"You're accompanying him now then?" Navi asked.
"I dunno about that – I was just going with him to get back to my sis originally, and that was his fault anyway."
"Excuse me? If Majora hadn't cursed me-" I started.
"Yeah, yeah, don't go into that again," he sighed. "I went with him after that because he doesn't know Termina too well – and so I can tease him."
"Who's Majora?" Blaze asked.
Tael and I shared a look, then we spent several minutes in the relative safety of that room filling the two in on why I was here and a summarized version of what I've told you so far. When I finished, I asked them, "I know about you," I said to Blaze, "But why are you here, Navi?"
"I was exploring," she replied. "I do that a lot lately. I came here to this Termina and found out what was going on, then met Blaze and decided to start here. I had no idea you were here too."
"When did you get here?"
Navi squirmed slightly. "I uh..."
"What did you do, little fairy?" I asked wearily.
"I uh... got here tomorrow," she answered after a moment, and Tael burst out laughing.
"Oh, gods!" he laughed. "Two of you! And to think it was bad enough with only one!"
"Is he alright?" Blaze asked quietly, watching Tael fly off a ways howling with laughter.
"He's fine, he just has trouble understanding the concept of time-travel," I sighed. "I guess that explains how you're here now," I added. "I knew you arrived tomorrow, on the second day. I didn't know you'd figured that out for yourself."
"Silver," Navi said firmly. "You took us through time a few times in Hyrule, and every time I was in fully command of my mind, just like you were. You can't expect me not to have learned anything from that."
"I'm just teasing you. I'm proud to see you're doing so well. I take it you're the reason I haven't seen any monsters up until now? Both of you, I mean."
"I don't know about both of us," Blaze sniffed. "I'm not even sure Navi needs me around. She throws them around like rag dolls."
Navi's white glow turned slightly pink with a flush.
"What am I going to do with you?" I teased her again. "Well, since I've sort of taken it on myself to be the local Hero, why don't you two come with us? I can't imagine better company – especially not after having to put up with that Demon blade. We'll wait for Tael to finish up, then move on."
"On other thing, Silver," Blaze told me. "Before that... thing focused entirely on Navi, I nicked this from him." And she handed me a small golden gemstone. "There was a note with it too. I've got it somewhere, but I couldn't read it."
"It said that the Hero must use the Sacred Light on the red emblem outside. It also said something like 'The emblem will rearrange the Temple so that the earth is born in the heavens and the boon born on the earth' which I can only means it lets us reach the sort of things we keep seeing above us instead."
"How have I ever managed without you, Navi? You've just given me the answer to a puzzle that's been bothering me since I first set foot in here."
"I still don't get it," Blaze said. "How can something like that work?"
I put the little gem down and wiggled my fingers exaggeratedly as I grinned and said, "Magic."
"Make him stop that, Navi," she complained.
"I did tell you magic exists, Blaze. Silver's just naturally good at it – at least when he's not irritating the locals to the point they steal it from him. Still, at least I'm around to provide that for you, eh?"
I gave up at that point. I'd missed Navi, and I'd almost forgotten how much I'd enjoyed her company and how easily she could put me in my place like that.
While Tael still remained away from us trying to come to terms with the situation I took the opportunity to explain the novelties of the Goron and Zora forms, along with my reason for inhabiting Mikau's at the time, along with sharing with Blaze the letter I'd got her to write to herself way back when I'd first seen her.
"This doesn't mention the last two forms," she noted absently, while I once again returned to Mikau's form and re-armed myself as I had before. "But I guess you didn't have them at the time."
"What's it like being a real Hylian, Silver?" Navi asked suddenly.
"Different. It was a bit uncomfortable at first because I didn't have any fur at all, but I'm alright with it now. It's just being a Deku Scrub I'm having trouble with," I told her.
"Alright then ladies," Tael said, coming back. "Why don't we get a move on? We've only got a few hours until dusk, and when that happens we'll be out of sunlight."
"Not a problem, my dear Tael," I said, smiling. "A little tune on the Ocarina and we'll be whisked ahead to morning."
"I know that. I just don't like it when you play with time."
"You've never mentioned that before."
"Why would I? It wouldn't make any difference. I don't mind the Song of Time so much, but the others all make me queasy."
"I noticed the same when I first starting doing it myself," Navi noted. "I'll give you a few tips while we tag along."
I consulted the maps for a moment, not that I really needed to as the only door – well, the only intact door – led south, into a narrow corridor that was only just wide enough for Blaze and I to stand beside each other. Part of it dropped down and had some moving spike traps in, while the rest stepped up in a giant stair in the middle. A strange creature with a mask on was waiting for me.
"Hiploop," Tael told me absently. "Rip it's mask of with the Hookshot or something to make it vulnerable," he added, then went back to his discussion with Navi. I took that advice, divesting it of its mask, then taking out the crossbow to shoot it instead, quickly attaching the new light gem to fire a Light Bolt. The resulting bolt blazed with light that exploded around the Hiploop on impact, though it faded quickly, leaving nothing behind.
"Nice shot," Blaze remarked.
"Fair," I said modestly. "This form isn't really suited for archery. I prefer to use my own or the Hylian one. Navi, have you encountered any fairy-like presences while you've been going through?"
"A few," she answered. "I didn't really pay them much attention, I thought they were just others like me, or the kind that heals. Why do you ask?"
"Remember the Stray Fairies I told you about? I've got six of them already, and there are fifteen. We need to collect them all so we can restore the local Great Fairy."
"Oh. Should have thought of that." She paused, and I once again felt her reach out, then she said, "There's one here, but you'll have to come back for it. You'll only be able to get it after flipping the Temple. Keep moving Silver, I'll keep a lookout for them for you."
It was almost like we'd never parted ways. I felt better for reuniting with her than I would have if I'd retained my mind by far.
